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Quinoa is one of the ancestral grains now considered as the “superfoods of the future” due to their characteristics as functional foods with great environmental adaptability. The Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund has introduced quinoa in Zimbabwe to increase resilience of farming systems in light of environmental shocks. In order to improve adoption of the crop, it is important to understand the combined effects of socio‐demographic variables on consumer perceptions of the crop. However, there is limited literature on the combined effects of socio‐demographic variables on quinoa health and nutritional benefits in Zimbabwe. In this study, we used principle component analysis to identify consumers' perception about health and nutritional benefits of quinoa in Gweru Urban District, Gweru, Zimbabwe. A questionnaire was designed and applied to 200 participants. However, only 167 forms were valid for analysis. Age, education, and income level are main factors that determine consumer perceptions on health and nutritional claims. The results indicate that quinoa need to be promoted a as a crop that goes beyond food and income security by placing additional emphasis on health and nutritional aspects. This is very insightful in light of the need to improve the uptake of the crop by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. However, the use of self‐reporting survey method has received criticism for failing to get detailed information on perceptions of individuals. These findings could be handy to promote quinoa as a climate smart crop with additional health and nutritional benefits. This is one of the novel research studies exploring the motives of Zimbabwean consumers towards quinoa as a functional food crop. The work also contributes to knowledge on consumer food preferences., In this study, we analyzed the perceptions of consumers on quinoa health and nutritional claims in Zimbabwe using the prt6incipal component analysis. We observed that the participants' perceptions toward the health and nutritional claims of quinoa could be explained by a combination of various sociodemographic variables.

In Zimbabwe opaque beer is one of the most common alcoholic beverages. This study was aimed at detecting aflatoxins and Ochratoxin A (OTA) in commercial opaque beer brewing. Aflatoxins and OTA are mycotoxins produced by fungi. Maize, sorghum malt and opaque beer samples were used for microbiological plating and multi mycotoxin extraction. Aflatoxins, OTA, Aspergillus spp, total viable count, coliforms, Lactobacillus spp, Salmonella, Shigella, Staphylococcus aureus were assessed. Mycotoxins were separated using an High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Aflatoxins were not detected in all the samples. OTA concentration for malt was 18 μg/kg, 5.2 μg/kg in beer and absent in maize. Fungi identified in maize were Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus carbonarius, and Aspergillus fumigatus. Malt contained Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus carbonarius. Fungi observed in beer were Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus niger. The beer may need heat treatment methods in order to remove the microorganisms identified and prolong shelf life of the product.

This survey aimed at identifying the current practices and experiences of industrial wastewater treatment in Zimbabwe. In this study, questionnaires were used to assess various companies located in Gweru Kwekwe, Bulawayo and Harare. The information collected identified a gap in the treatment of wastewater from food processing industries in Zimbabwe. Current results indicate that about 86% of the food processing industries surveyed have primary treatment facilities. Few companies have proper secondary treatment facilities. Wastewater was characterised for selected effluents. Electrical conductivity (EC) of the wastewater was also recorded to be lower in most of the samples where dairy effluent showed highest EC by a value of 953 μS/cm. Total dissolved solids (TDS) were observed to be higher in dairy effluent as compared with other effluents. Total suspended solids (TSS) of cereal beverage effluent were higher with a value of 90 mg/L. The highest chemical oxygen demand (COD) values were recorded in potato processing effluent (690 mg/L O2) followed by meat processing effluent (485 mg/L O2). These values however are above the value recommended in S.I.6 of 2007 of 60 mg/L. It was noted that more than 80% of the wastewater comes from production processes and a substantial amount (53%) coming from raw material processing. This study indicates that regular inspections are done to enforce the wastewater legislation. Of all the companies studied, 73% of the companies were disposing their industrial effluent directly into the municipal sewer lines. Without the proper treatment facilities, the disposal of polluted effluent into the public sewer poses health and environmental consequences to the community. It can be concluded from the current data that there is a serious need to establish secondary treatment systems to remove organic load from food processing effluent and reduce pollution. Key words: Wastewater, food processing, pollution, treatment, legislation, disposal.